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Perfect posts on Facebook

When it comes to businesses on Facebook, one of the holy grails is crafting the perfect post that sees engagement factors like views, shares, likes, and comments maximized. For many, finding the perfect post is nearly impossible, but there is a ton of data out there that could help point you in the right direction. In fact, a recent study by TrackMaven highlights a number of factors that could help you create a great Facebook post for your business.

About the study

TrackMaven focuses on providing digital marketers with competitive intelligence. The company commissioned a study that looked at 1.5 million posts across 6,000 different Facebook Pages, in an effort to try and figure out what makes a so-called perfect post. According to the study, the idea of ‘perfect’ is a post that has gone viral on News Feeds and has extended overall content reach.

Essentially what they found is that there is no one perfect post! Rather, there are a number of post elements that, when combined, will usually lead to an increase in overall post reach and success. Here is a brief overview of the five common elements the most successful posts include.

They ask questions

The study found that on average, posts that ask a question will see 23% more engagement than other posts. While this makes sense, after all a question is really a call to action that aims to get the reader to do something, not every post works with a question.

If, for example, you are introducing a new event, or posting updates about a recent company gathering, questions may not make the most sense in this context. The key is to only include questions when they seem appropriate or a natural fit. If you want to inspire some action in your customers then a question can work well and urges people to actually do something more than simply look at a post.

The hashtag is used (sparingly)

In Facebook, as in other social networks, the hashtag is used to not only highlight words in a post, but to also make the post searchable. If you click on a hashtag on a post, you should see other posts also using that tag. When used in the right way, a hasthag can really increase engagement with your posts.

Interestingly enough, the TrackMaven study found that posts with hashtags saw 60% more engagement than those without. The key here is to use them sparingly! In other words, don’t hashtag every word, or cram them all at the end. Instead, try to hashtag common words, or words associated with the company or content, directly in the content.

They post on weekends or off hours

There are hundreds, if not thousands of studies online looking at when the best time to post content is. Many conclude that the ideal time is different based on industry, type of business, audience, etc. While this is true, this study highlighted that companies who post after business hours and on the weekend can see increased interaction.

For posts on Sunday, interaction rate was 25% higher than similar content posted on a Wednesday, while posts that show up on News Feeds after 5:00 pm Monday to Friday will see over 10% higher interaction rates.

The key point here is that it could be a good idea to post your content when your audience is more likely to look at Facebook. Most business managers, owners, and even customers probably aren’t looking at Facebook during business hours, so try scheduling content after the working day or on weekends.

They are visual

Take a look at your own News Feed and you will notice that a large majority of content on there is visual in nature. Be it videos, images, links with images, etc, Facebook is a highly visual platform.

The study, unsurprisingly, found that posts with visual content had higher interaction than posts with just text. In fact, posts with visual content had an average of 2.35 interactions per post while posts with just text had 1.71 interactions. While these numbers aren’t high, it stresses that if you want your content to be shared or interacted with, visuals help.

They reach a general word count

A lot of people, when using social media, tend to be viewing Facebook on their mobile devices, or when they have a couple of spare minutes. What this equates to is people quickly scanning their News Feed and moving onto another post after only a few seconds, or less.

It is best to strive for a wordcount that is easily scannable for most posts. The study found that posts with 80-89 words inspired more engagement than shorter posts. This indicates that a good word count might be in the range of 70-100 for maximum effect. That being said, there are a number of professionals out there who use Facebook as an almost-blog and post longer content, who are relatively successful. We recommend trying out a few longer posts as well, just to see how people interact with them.

If you are looking to learn more about Facebook for your business, contact us today to see how we can help.